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Unboxing the CAME-TV 7500 7800 RTR 3 Axis Gimbal Stabilizers

Here's a look at unboxing and setting up the CAME-TV 7500 and 7800 3 Axis Gimbal Stabilizers. Touching on the newly updated (7500) version, there are very slight changes but mostly cleaning up the wiring, especially around the battery cable. They consider this system RTR, but there is some small assembly to the top handle and of course you need to balance your camera. To see an original unboxing video about the CAME-TV 7500 (click here).

Moving on to the most recent Gimbal Product from CAME-TV is the new 7800 Gimbal. Once again CAMETV is trying to offer up an 'affordable' Ready-To-Run system and has added more improvements over the 7500 version. The 7800 model now offers a monitor mount, quick disconnect side handles, and a quick release baseplate - which makes it even easier to balance a camera.

What I didn't show in the video was how to remove the side handles. The side handles can be removed without tools by rotating to loosen the clamp.

Remove side handles by twisting to loosen clamp

The top handle I suggest removing from the bottom of the dogbone clamp, so that you can better fit the system into a hard case like the Nanuk 945. The interior dimensions are L 22 x W 17 x H 8.2, which fits pretty snug, but still has lots of side space for your accessories (monitor, batteries, cables, tools, etc).

Without spending too much time getting super accurate balancing on my gimbal, the 7800 performed very well right out of the box and without tuning any of the PID settings via the software. While you may not have to dive into the software, I still encourage people to at least 'understand' the software.

Now i'm not the only one this week who has unboxed one of the new 7800 gimbals. MDIFilms earlier today left a comment on this blog about their experiences setting up the system with a GH4 camera. They've provided a few different tutorial videos below, and interestingly enough they too did not have to tune PID settings out of the box (for their GH4 setup).

While it still takes a lot of patience and understanding how to balance a camera properly on a gimbal, the design improvements CAME-TV adds to each new gimbal make the 'Out of Box' experience better each time - while still keeping the systems affordable. The CAME-TV 7800 is available now, and is currently discounted for the month of October, 2014 (click here).

@Alex - That could be because your Roll bar has to be rotated upwards slightly. There are two horizontal arms (one on each side of the camera). If that is pointing slightly down, then you are bottom heavy. Loosen the clamp that holds the roll bar and rotate those arms up (very slightly).

@Diego Indraccolo - Your video shows you have critical low battery levels. Hard to say if there's a problem at all. I think your Motor 'num poles' is way off too. Looks like there could be a few things wrong in how you have the software setup.

I hust ordered a came tv 7800and I'm try to balance it with a canon 5d (both mark III and II), with a 28mm lens.

I manage to get perfect result on the tilt bar and on the yew section.

The problem is I was never able to find the perfect balance for the roll bar: when I move it it doesn't stay in position, it goes back to center.
If I try to move the camera up, as indicated in some videos the situation gets better on the roll bar, but it's impossibile to balance the tilt section.

Do you have any suggestion ?

I'm starting to have the feeling that is one or the other, the tilt or the roll, seems really impossible to get them both!!!

@Jcam - It's hard to tell without seeing your screenshots, but you might want to double check a few things. First make sure you have perfect balance, especially with the YAW. When powered off you should be able to tilt the handles sideways and it should not swing. Next tilt the handles over the camera, it should not swing.

Next make sure your sensors are tracking the camera correctly. When in the software click on Camera IMU and if you tilt the camera lens up, the Pitch arrow should point up. If standing behind the camera, tilt the camera left and the Roll arrow should tilt left too.

Next click on Frame IMU. If you pick up the gimbal and tilt the handles left, the frame IMU should show it moving left. If you tilt the frame backwards, you should see the arrow point up, etc. If it's not tracking correctly, then your sensors are not setup right.

Also double check your Motors if you require an 'invert' option. Put your gimbal on a stand and turn it on. Connect to the software and click on the 'Auto' button under Motor Configuration. It will start moving the camera on it's own and it will detect if your motors need the 'invert' option. When it's done, make sure to change NUM POLES back to 22. (it doesn't do a good job at detecting num poles).

Finally make sure that your PID settings, Motor Config, RC Tab, Advanced Tab, and all tabs are 'exactly the same in every profile'. The only thing different should be your Follow Tab between profiles. Otherwise if you have different PID settings then the gimbal will operate differently as you change modes.

@Emm - Good day. Yes, it worked very well. At first use a canon 6d a 24-105 lens and this time was a canon 60d with the same lens. Each camera needs a different calibration? (In software),Calibration is lost with the use ?, you need to be constantly calibrated? The vibration may not be a fault with an engine?. Regards.

Good day, a month ago I bought a gimbal CAME 7800. I have used it a few times, I had very good results. But today I was going to make a recording, the gimbal began having an unusual vibration, vibration thoughts about me that originates in the engine up-down (holding camera), looks like a fast and continuous vibration. Why ?, vibration originated have not modified any of calibration, will it be a manufacturing defect ?, I have to do my warranty valid? . Thank you for your answer. Regards.

I've had lots of success with the 7500, learned a lot from your balance calibration videos, etc.

However, I'm having a problem that I can't solve. The gimbal is basically unresponsive. Battery is charged, I turn it on, no beeping (also, no single beep as it normally does), the LED flashes Red/Green. Motors don't twitch, or move at all. When I connect to the computer and run the GUI software, it recognizes that the gimbal is plugged in (I hit connect and it sees the battery level). But there is red text that says "Sensor is not connected".

This leads me to believe that something is wrong on the PCB, maybe it's fried or something? Might you have any thoughts?

@David - The system should not beep several times when you first start it up. Did you tap into the software? Seems like you may have the option of 'Calibrate Gyro on Startup' which requires you to hold the camera steady during Power ON. If you're not holding it steady then it looks like it's just going all over the place and waiting to calibrate.

Try jumping into the software and select the checkbox to 'Skip Gyro Calibration During Startup' and then see if that changes anything.

Thanks for all the info you have put out there, it has made setting up my gimbal as simple as it could probably get. I am running into a slight problem with my 7800 however...

Whenever I pan (or yaw), whether its in follow mode or using the joystick, the camera rolls in the direction. Then, every so slowly it straightens back up. Any idea what might be causing this and how I would fix it?

I was having problems with my Came 7800 when I first got it but it worked fine once I replaced the crappy battery it came with and used the Venom battery you suggested. How many hours do these Venom batteries last? I'm trying to decide if I need two or three of them for a long day of shooting.

@gur - Ok, I don't think you followed my suggestion. You need to go into the software and disable all the RC input settings. Disconnecting the joystick is not going to change anything. The software expects a joystick connected.

@gur - The first thing I would check is the Joystick. Looks like it might be stuck, damaged, or the wiring of the joystick might be damaged. A quick check is to go into the software and disable all the RC inputs (change to no input). That will disable the software from listening to a joystick command. If the problem goes away you're looking at trying to figure out if it's the joystick itself or wiring from the joystick to the board.

Finally found the reason ( wrong driver ) !! You are right on the charger, it is cheap, real cheap.It did not work properly out of the box, it seems that something was broken inside and finally blow-out ...Thank you for your help ..

I encounter another problem since I cant get to the software,I can see the cp2102usb uart in my contol pannel /device but the computer mention that the drivers are not install even if I did install the silabs ( windows 2k ) and simplebgc ?? Anyone had the same issue?

Today when I recharged the battery and turned it on, it did not shake as it used to, so I followed this video to try and make it work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K1plNpScB4
however it simply does not move when I press the controls.

We recently purchased the 7800 from came-tv. I followed all the instructions for the set-up and what I found on the internet here, (i.e. here) but the calibration was off for our 5DmkIII when I would turn on the unit. The roll was slanted pretty far left. Then I downloaded the Simple BGC program, plugged in the unit, and noises went a-blazing. I disconnected it, because it didn't sound right, and then tried to auto tune the Motor config. This caused more crazy noises and then the computer froze. I restarted everything up, reconnected the gimbal and now it shakes uncontrollably and the program says Motor is missing steps? I tried reaching out to Came-Tv but they haven't replied, their return policy says 14 days but because we were on break, I don't think we're within that range. Anybody help?

i checked the motor wiring after disassembling the gimbal for the 4th time and found areas around the articulating joints of the gimbal where bare wire were exposed from the insulation being worn away by the crazy jittering from when I was trying to tune it. This may have caused a short in the system when it came in contact with the metal bearings on the motors.

now all axes except the pitch axis works as it should. the pitch axis still randomly jerks around and around.

I re-re-re-re-calibrated the imu's just to be safe and tried just focusing on the pitch axis. again, auto-pid just made it act even crazier. factory default settings stabilized it a bit, but it still randomly tilted for no reason. manual pid tuning didn't seem to help at all. I lowered the PID and tried raising the PID values systematically without success. I changed the power input into the motors several times, manually retuning the PID settings each time. Still no success. Camera just jerkily flops around on the pitch axis for no apparent reason.

Came-TV finally responded to my email, but there is still a language barrier there. Trying to get them to send me replacement parts is like pulling teeth -- even for just some simple wiring / cables. I asked for a new motor, but they won't send me one because their technicians insist that there is nothing wrong.

On the bright side, I'll be drinking tonight. If I'm ever in your area and you're free, I think I owe you a drink or ten.

Happy New Year, Emm. Here's to a functioning gimbal in 2015, hopefully. Cheers.

@Most Mediocre - The Missing Steps could be caused from incorrect 'Pole' settings for your motors. Make sure they match what they are supposed to be which I think we 22 / 22 / 14 (yaw).

If the motors aren't setup it will think it's missing steps. Also double check your motor wiring make sure each has 3 wires connected to them very well. If one wire comes loose it will not work correctly.

Now I am trying to tune PID manually, but I'm not really sure what I'm doing. I'm doing my best to follow the instructions from the CheesyCam YouTube page, but my gimbal just isn't behaving / responding the same way as I see online.

And I still have no idea what motor miss steps means, or the constantly lit red LED light on my frame IMU. I can't really find any answers anywhere online.

yep, I tried. I just wiped out the board (click joystick 10 times), recalibrated both imus, recalibrated gyros, turned off all RC functions, but auto PID tuning did not work for me. I sandbagged the crap out of my gimbal stand and let auto PID run, but the camera just shakes like crazy after it finishes. Then, when I zero out the PID settings and write it to the board, the motors stop acting so crazy, but they still jerk the camera around, mostly on the roll axis (I can't ever keep a level horizon).

If I turn off motors with the software on/off button, it just balances normally without electronic input.

@Most Mediocre - Are you sure you didn't click on the Motors Off button? This will disable all the motors and wont respond to changes. Put the battery on, turn on the switch, and try using the Motors On/Off button.

I'm thinking about starting from scratch. I think I'm past the return date policy since I spent so many days waiting for customer service to respond to me, so I figure I might as well try wiping all onboard profiles and reconfiguring the whole thing from the ground up.

I tried. I stripped away the damaged portion and bridged it with a small piece of copper wire and some fresh solder. I'm still getting the "motor is missing steps error," and furthermore, none of the PID settings I write to the board seem to have any effect anymore. I tested the gimbal with factory settings, default settings, auto-PID settings, Tom Antos' settings, your settings from the YouTube video and the gimbal just kinda sits there like it's powered off even though the battery is fully charged and the unit is turned on. The only thing that happens is that the motors twitch on startup, the camera never stabilizes itself, and that's it. It acts like it's powered off.

I'm pretty confused at this point. I don't know what went wrong, and I don't think anything I did should have had such a result. I emailed customer service several days ago and no one has replied yet.

Ok, thanks for the fast reply. I tried all your suggestions and found another potential problem. When calibrating the IMUs, I found that the frame IMU was damaged. Additionally, there is a continuously lit red LED light on the frame IMU while I did not see a light turned on on the frame IMU. Is it supposed to be this way?

After calibration using a bubble level, as well as auto PID tuning, the gimbal now freaks out like crazy when I turn it on. I have no idea what I might be doing wrong. I'm pretty sure I've been doing everything exactly as how I see in the CheesyCam YouTube videos. CAME-TV customer support still hasn't responded to any of my emails, and I'm very quickly approaching the end of their 14-day return policy.

@Most Mediocre - Anything can cause a sensor to go out of calibration, even just plain time. You should always calibrate your gimbal whenever possible which is why I always set it as one of my profiles (click 5 times to calibrate gyros, or 6 times to calibrate sensors).

If you power on the unit and it immediately points up, check your RC settings. I would first disable all the RC inputs and see if that solves the problem. If it does then you may have a bad joystick. Trace your joystick wiring and make sure it's all connected and you didn't break or pinch a wire.

If you disable the joystick, and still have the problem check your 'Pitch Offset' in the follow mode tab. Maybe you have it start up with an initial tilt. This setting is used to center a camera because motors can have variations to them when they power on.

Oh and as far as trying to spin your pitch motor round and round, yeah don't do that. It's not made to do that. It's just there to prevent tangling, it's not a true slip ring. This includes your YAW and Roll motors too.

I'm also having problems with the Came 7800, and I have a YouTube video of it, linked below. It beeps 5 times when I turn it on, the camera suddenly jerks backwards and points to the ceiling, then I can't seem to control the pitch motor with the joystick at all. Also, the wires leading in to the pitch motor on the side twist, bunch up, and exert pressure on that axis if it rotates too much.

I read on Tom Antos' blog that leaving it in the trunk of my car can affect the sensors due to magnetism from my car's speakers. Is this true?

@DomSim - Oh yes you would go into the software to do this, BUT you can also add the 'calibrate gyros' as one of your profile settings. So then you can use the joystick and click a few times to calibrate without having to go back into the software.

@DomSim - There are a few things that may cause this. First try to Calibrate Gryos. Hold the frame steady and level and click on the Calibrate Gyro button. Another thing could be with the joystick settings. Make sure you don't have any type of offset or initial angle setting.

Finally , My 7800 is in perfect balance in every angle possible , but it is impossible to have a straight horizon , the gimbal always have one side higher than the other when i start it ??? I had spend many hours on it looking at every tutorial out there . Anybody have a clue since i am thinking of sending it back . Even the Came logo was upside down on my unit so I am thinking it was kind of fast assembly .Thank you

hey there, just landed my 7800 and think I have balanced it adequately however when I power up it doesn't stop beeoping and beeping quickly in succession. it does sound like an alarm, like something's not right here! what the hell is this about? is this some kind of error and message suggesting something needs to be addressed? thanks

HELP! I just got my Cametv 7800 balanced for my Nikon D800 with a Nikkor AFS 17-35 1:2.8D lens. It ran fine a couple of times and now when I turn on the gimbal it makes 5 beeping sounds, stops, and then starts beeping continuously. The settings button seems to be working..if I click one, two or three, times it seems to reset okay to each function...not perfectly but okay... but it won't stop beeping. Any ideas what's going in and how to fix it? I haven't abused the gimbal... I've only walked around my house with a couple of times.

@Arno - Beeping 10 times usually means it's going through some type of calibration process. How many times are you clicking the joystick? Typically 1 click changes to profile 1, 2 clicks for profile 2, 3 clicks for profile 3. There are only about 3-4 profiles that are usable, anything more than that might be calibrating the sensors or calibrating the gyro.

@mad - If you have the 7800 then yes it should have been mounted at the factory. Check for screws in your box the sensor mounts with z axis up and the wires should point towards the side (pitch) motor.

i figured thats what that was. the manual says nothing about mounting a sensor... i dont think. i'll look into it when i get home. i figured this because when i hold it and power it on the behavior of the gimbal kind of changes as i move the sensor around. should this be mounted at the factory?

@Mario - The size of the frame is generally the same. If you want to slow down the follow you go into the software and adjust the 'speed' setting. Lower number is slower, you can even set this different for each profile so you have slow and fast.

@Barry - Yes you need to go into the software and try changing the 'D' values a little at a time. Remember what your settings were in case you have to roll back. Also, every profile on the system is different (unless you make it the same). So if you change the settings in one profile, make sure to use the drop down menu and change it in the other available profiles so they all match the same PID settings. Also make sure to hit the 'Write' button whenever making changes.

I'm mounting a Sony A7s with a 24-85 Nikon Lens, with a Metabones adapter... I'm guessing it's all just under 3 pounds... so my buzzing issue is most likely your second option, which is I need to increase the PID settings?

I saw an old video you did, where you reset the PIDs thru the SimpleGUI software... is that where I need to go to fix the "D"?

@Barry - You should certainly tighten everything up because the sensors measure vibration. If you have vibrating parts it could cause the system to attempt to counter the vibration. But there could be something else.

When the motors are buzzing there's two different sounds that tell you if your setup is too light or too heavy for the current software calibration (PID Settings). I guess i'm a bit of a Gimbal Whisperer by now, JK. If it's a low frequency vibration then your camera is too light and you have to tone down the the PID settings. If it's a high frequency vibration (buzzing) then you would increase the PID settings (typically just the D). What is your setup?

@Barry - If it's sitting level when it's not on, and then tilts when it's turned on, you may have to calibrate the sensor. Just don't change anything else. Once you have it connected to the software, power the gimbal on, hold the camera perfectly level and square with your gimbal and then hit Calibrate Acc. Right after that, you should be good.

@Ken Poindexter - The DJI Ronin has the most payload, but it's a beast of a machine and all the hulk and bulk is not always needed for small camera shooters. Let me upload another video in about an hour and then we'll get back to this question.

Great unboxing video! So which do you like better, the Came 7800 or the Varavon Birdycam 2? Is the Varavon worth the extra money;not far from the DJI Ronin which has a much higher payload? Based on your experience with the 7000 and 7500 do you believe this is a quality product that will hold up well? Thanks for providing some of the best product information on the web!

Emm I have worst customer results with them Directly, and they yet replace the product and it came late, really bad wiring, alot excuse. at lest they treat you good. I out money that would build 2 with when source the parts myself. SMH lesson learned, for me.